thomas frank thanks so much for being with us tonight pleasure talking with you coming up nuclear threat levels continue to rise in japan president obama lays down the hammer and libya and scott walker gets a knockout blow from the courts are big picture rumble is up next. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right and. i think. people want to well. we never government says they're going to keep him safe get ready because your

freedom. they tell martin here broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture.

are you ready to rumble on the panel tonight jimmy weinstein steen the weinstein dead at the only color i have only if you know of john walker senior policy analyst at firedoglake dot com and see the motley president of less government ok let's get started desperate efforts continue in japan to prevent a nuclear catastrophe here in america we have to ask ourselves could this happen here there are twenty three general electric mark one nuclear reactors in operation in the us exact same design as the reactors in japan at least five out of the six that are on the verge of meltdown so isn't it time we forget about nuclear power and invest in alternative clean energy like wind and coal or will the nuclear lobby

that spends tens of millions of dollars buying politicians bring us to disaster. what is. well i say call on the. solar power tilting at windmills and know that we need wind windmills work with mills or line one thousand percent he has restored another bit more deaths in the wood via windmill power than there have been by nuclear power in the united states. people. are going to zero you know including the mining if you're any one of the what happened in japan was a nine earthquake followed by a thirty three what foot wall of water and it's still almost contained and the parts of the failsafe that broke down we don't use anymore they're outdated outmoded the new designs are far better sources for superior to what they have there will be just fine with a twenty two we're going to go right now i'm not going to pretend that i know an expert on nuclear energy design for reactors that seems you know i can i can i can

speak on a lot of things that i can i think she's right that this was like a catastrophe that you could hardly prepare for this is over compassion on top of a catastrophe but what i would have you think should be noted is the mazing resilience of the japanese people what they're doing right now in the people better at the plants who are basically giving up their lives to save that country you know in the midst of this strategy tragedy they have a lot to be proud of john thoughts on rise these two conservatives the support of nuclear power it is it requires just massive corporate welfare to make nuclear power viable currently if you build the newest level plants and new e.p.a. act of two thousand and five you get a twenty eighty split government loan guarantee so you could have twenty percent for losses and you get one hundred percent of the profits so the government taking eighty percent of the losses in the cvo says half the time there is going to be cost overruns you're going to lose out on building nuclear power plants they're

just not viable without a massive infusion of government freddie and fannie yeah. and it's in the if this is after happened here the government has kept liability so we'd be paying for all this new killer does that person enters into so so without precedence we get no nuclear industry because nobody will insurer and you know you guys are you really in favor of big government insuring an industry that probably shouldn't exist well i think that the discussion about nuclear power be less necessary if we didn't have a current administration who was impeding all up to my point is if he had known by sanderson if you had no way government gary ways for the industry we wouldn't need a nuke we wouldn't need the push for so many nuclear reactor power facilities if we were allowed to drill domestically both off shore and on land if we were allowed to mine our coal and use it properly if we were allowed to sue it or if we would he's eager to have so gas simply paid attention to jimmy carter and follow his order was

a movie i got a second administration or obviously he actually doesn't know he actually had a good energy policy. in my opinion that what you're looking at is the depth of the history this is this is going to be a but the reason. i think so yesterday the u.n. security council approved a resolution to enact a no fly zone over libya moammar gadhafi has already crushed rebel forces and despite claims of a cease fire violence continues in that nation today president obama said this a cease fire must be implemented immediately that means all attacks against civilians must stop gadhafi must stop his troops from advancing on benghazi pull them back from oxford via this ride off and zawiyah and establish water electricity and gas supplies to all areas humanitarian assistance must be allowed to reach the people of libya. are you be clear these terms are not

the go. these terms are not subject to the goetia if gadhafi does not comply with the resolution the international community will impose consequences and the resolution will be enforced through military action so should we be in libya and if so or not how or why. i've some reservations about you know the resolution that was passed but i don't think i i think i'm going to stand behind the president while he's sending american troops over in harm's way and given his full support what i what i will say is this that if this was going to be our policy which is you know he must go and we're going to back it up by military force i don't think we should have gone through this fiction of the international community coming together when in reality that the force that matters in these situations he's always and has always been america's force so i don't think that we should pretend that that's not the case i think the last thing

we need right now is another war and the a lot of money on with. basically vegged goals of protecting the citizens are what the arab league has put forth their support for the no fly zone they should be the one force and if they really want it we already waste one percent of g.d.p. our two wars in iraq and afghanistan let's not go to war in another country you know we did this in afghanistan the first time around but i don't support in those rebels that we're now fighting this time around when we've gone back for another expensive war. i'm a conservative who was against nation building in both iraq and afghanistan i want to go and cut off the heads of government and leave and leave a note saying whoever emerges from the mosque remember how you got here we'll be back if you mess with us again so i'm certainly has it and i agree with jamie completely that if he's going to send troops on his way i'm going to support him forward but that being said he said two weeks ago three weeks ago you must

stop and i don't think i can ever recall another time when the u.n. acted with greater speed and determination than the united states and it happened here and now it's made this is the whole point of the us is that we are not under attack if the united states is under attack we have every right to defend ourselves his or the u.n. libya has nothing to do with us except for our oil companies so if we're going to say we're going to stop a rwanda we're going to stop a serbia were to stop a genocide we're going to stop then then we really have to have the internet because they who's going to stop it americans force are going to stop it oh and for you know enjoy it was here in the backyard in the midnight in saudi i mean that in the in the one nine hundred ninety s. in the backyard of europe it took ninety five percent american forces to do anything in bosnia we to come overseas and take care of a problem in europe's backyard america's forces is really the only one that can do these type of things but let me let me say this i think that what we should

remember that could be in the aftermath of the iraq war was afraid and that's why he gave up his nuclear weapons he didn't want to end up. saddam hussein before a military force is used in this instance i think we should send it on boy secretly or covertly to warn me that this could happen and he possibly could go live his days off and so on you know zimbabwe or and what about he is sure. just just fundamentally here and i started to go to cuba i had no idea what it was that that there is in the constitution it explicitly says that only congress has the power to declare war it doesn't say that the president can declare war and in fact president shouldn't be declaring war and so if the if congress is sitting around arguing about whether or not to defund n.p.r. when they should be deciding whether or not we're going to war with this guy then they're not doing their jobs the republicans are totally screwing it up or that it's incumbent upon president obama personally because they get sixty days to do unilateral military action without a congressional authorization but beyond that it's incumbent upon the president who

hasn't done this for two and a half years to go to congress as i need this done get it done and that includes ok i want to do a no fly zone in libya put together a resolution and pass it so i can sign and so i can go do it he hasn't done it with obamacare he didn't do that with the stimulus is not with any president's job it's in the constitution is very clear this is congress's job and i'm right in that he's just defund planned parenthood let's defunded something going on in libya though that's not our job know this but it's amazing to see him on t.v. and said you should president just little did he and said this is not negotiable we have to do this what anyway he tried to go to congress actually did was unconstitutional insane and he himself condemned. it was on the you can do it no it wasn't because we can do it for sixty days once he starts the process not according to constitution he could sixty days without congressional according to wark the war powers act but not according to all the traditions of the a house and so i speaking to your fashion there's no reason they can't take this exam not some extraordinary circumstances is to go and i was. going to disagree

with one saying is where obama's supposed to go go to. and so we need this let's get it done that's what bush speaking of war tomorrow is the eighth anniversary of the start of the iraq war in recognition of this congressman a decorated war hero charlie rangle and his legislation to reinstate the draft earlier this week he was here on our show and explained one of the reasons behind this legislation. i truly believe that if you tell me that you are going to. fly is one thing if you tell me that is a job that is going to fight but if you expect me to my kids that you have to explain that little girl would shoot me about what the fight is about it was i think so isn't mandatory military service the best way to prevent needless wars like this in the future the military doesn't want it we have the best trained best army we ever had in the history of this country i don't know why we're going to take or take out of you know the military doesn't want it i think i'm going to succumb to the average person who's in the military they're going to say yeah what a great idea to bring everybody into this thing what you're suggesting you're

suggesting that you know these people aren't didn't have anything else to do they go into the military usually these people are very qualified and they chose to go to texas you know caisson it with the modern military what we're finding is that that's the job of last resort for many i get a lot of people in the military who are sitting there as they're trying to citizenship my friend from college she left law school joined the army rangers and with afghanistan i know many capel capless stories like that believe me the evil people people in the new american military could get jobs many other places. so you just heard he's a solution if there isn't a family is. and his family is going to sit with him when he joined under false the average the average military person needs to rely on the person who is left in his right in a foxhole in a firefight works fine and world that he doesn't and he doesn't want to do it great relying on people who are conscripted and we have the best military now precisely because they know that everyone you want to draw your world war two and the reason why it worked fine in world war two was because everybody in america knew that they

had their kids but was on the line and so that damn well better be a real war that's really worth fighting that's not true that's a rewrite of history had the draft after that i mean this is not because everyone was in the military up in decided to go into world war two wasn't a question of that and you need the resources so they drafted people who were fighting on two fronts the pacific and europe and they needed more people ok john your thoughts on. you know. doesn't want the war should be a bunch of kids who don't want to go to the war after the war and somehow get people to be against the war never struck me as a gift that way i'm opposed to the war i don't want any of our soldiers dying in some sand frat for reasons i can't quite how to handle we're never properly explained i don't understand why that's a good thing to send more people over there i don't want anyone over there i understand the logic it's sort of is in your face if there had not been a draft in the sixty's and you wouldn't see me as i were demonstration let me let me give just a shout out again you know this is the anniversary of the iraq war whether you supported or opposed it the united states military has given the iraqi people

a chance a real chance democratically million of democratic allies place. you know that was the also the terrorists inside. the mind of anyone else. in the back instead of the bad america gave a real chance for freedom in iraq and the soldiers fought bravely battle badly you know nobody i don't think wants to put down our soldiers leave the capability to people we don't know i don't know in the book apparently had died in this conflict and and what a conflict that was unnecessary it was a conflict that was absolutely unnecessary record nothing to nothing to do. and in any case i grew thomas jefferson when he said that we should have a national military draft and we should have local militias and everybody should be a member of that next week like switzerland does and he said i so i hope i shall never see a time when i live in a nation with higher lines in the military and with people poor people going into the military is the only job i don't think i'm going to hold ok all right the

oregon state house passed a bill this week that requires computer techs to report any evidence of child porn you find a fix in someone's computer face up to your prison themselves isn't deputizing the geek squad a bad idea and what happened to fourth member. i think this sounds a bit absurd to me you know probably want some legal protection if someone discovers child porn they want to be able to go forward with it any idiot that brings their computer full of child porn think it inspected deserves to go to prison if you want an external hard drive. i think criminalizing behavior in this way this is passed unanimously by the house and what i mean i gree i don't think it's a good idea however however having dealt with the geek squad advice number of times if there is any group of people that probably knows quite a deal about me. are going to tell you i mentioned this on the air that i took my computer in to get it fixed about two years or less time i had a big problem and when i got it back you know there's the recent history and i

pulled my recent history and it was all a pagan mpeg they had gone through all my family pictures on somebody just you know they were always going to be downloaded porn in your view. they were looking for and ok there's somebody there who's like building the world's biggest porn collection there is probably checking everybody's computer but but i think that there's actually a serious fourth amendment issue i mean the fourth amendment says that you should be secure in your persons and papers unless somebody swears under oath that there's probable cause you committed a crime and isn't a computer the modern day equivalent of a desk or a filing cabinet and if and are we going to go to locks this and say if you get a job fixing a filing cabinet you're supposed to go through all the files or if you get a you know it's a carpenter's if you get a job fix in the drawer because it stuck he supposed to go through all the papers in the desk what i just i don't think it's for the moment it's clean as you do because that's the counts hostage place you from the government not from best buy or you know the locksmith or any of that so there's that interim conduit that makes it less of a direct fourth amendment violation i don't buy one when wal-mart has those videos

no but secretary napolitano is saying you know spying your neighbors and that's very very free here yeah you know it's very soviet politburo of them closer to the bush administration. so it was like so anyway. in the end because you can take you from the government god help you get that he was your own yeah well said and let me just to my to put a period point on this the reason this kind of crappy legislation gets proposed is because somebody thinks that if anybody votes against it they'll be able to run ads in the next election cycle saying so on social favors child porn that's what no one favors drug bills i know i know and it's terrible is the way she will read and social security and more reforming medicare figure out a way we need to figure out a we have to stop this kind of terrible of solution and he later this later this month michele bachmann will be speaking sponsored by the network of iowa christian home educators bachmann claims she's raised her own five children plus twenty three

foster children and is a big supporter of homeschooling in yourself which is odd considering her dodgy knowledge of american history for example she believes the regular revolutionary war was started in hampshire and the founding fathers ended slavery but assuming the bachmann does start her own school her classes are you looking forward to taking the most thereafter very question a public speaking want to one while i contact is overrated be european history want to one why we don't need to leave it learn it or see biology want to one the myth of evolution. playing off you know me speaking i would say i would learn which is barack obama's fifty seven states. it's actually fifty nine fifty seven states two more to go through with your time i would probably go with public speaking and cheese you know as much as people like that it's all there for many misquotes he knows how to draw a crowd that would actually know how to make public this way. and i also i am still looking and scouring the prescription drug outlets and the drug stores the world over obama's in the later in. what he was talking about he

couldn't think of the word inhale or a war for asthma people and he said in a way he's off a teleprompter he's problematic. such as should show any i think it will be a political stunt. it's going to strategy as a political science one along strategies for a way for democratic electoral victories i think that's what she's up to i if you look at what's going on with michele bachmann i'm actually we have mike we have one minute left let me just throw this out to all of you you know it with what's going on wisconsin and you know what thomas frank and i were talking about he's the rope publican party in trouble is the democratic party in trouble what's the landscape you look you know we're talking about maybe future president michele bachmann and in that case i think we're in very good shape as a country but seriously i think i think we're seeing democracy in action across cut across the country we're where people have voted in governors really great

governors who are doing great things to try to lead the country and reform government and make a sustainable. you know scott walker has definitely made himself very unpopular the governor of pennsylvania governor of ohio made themselves up on people or they were their mandate they thought they could go after the public sector unions the american people you look after pulling out a point two thirds of the country support collective bargaining for him you know it's one of them no it's not ok that will be gone in a year we got to have a there thanks so much jim jimmy weinstein john walker see motley thank you all for being thank you. right after the break sighs daily take examines the republican war against well and it's historical so.

let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right. i think. even when the well. whenever government says never keep you safe get ready because of your freedom. a charge in here broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture.

new web site needs twenty four seven live streaming news towns like thank you about the ongoing financial hardship unlimited free high quality videos for download. and stories you never find on mainstream news. that is so.

political. person more on our team just. since republicans took control the house of representatives and state legislatures around the nation it launched an all out war on women can be funny women's health

care services to defunding planned parenthood to redefine it right to blocking legislation that provides equal pay for equal work for women you wonder if the next step for the republican party will be to repeal the one thousand amendment and take away women's rights to vote. republicans are also cutting critical federal programs that assist low income families across the country and to make sure where women don't get any help raising their kids will try to work republicans are cutting head start programs and slashing elementary school funding at the same time republicans have been feverish really pushing corporate tax cuts corporate deregulation corporate welfare schip a u.s. jobs overseas tax cuts for millionaires even doing away with the inheritance tax basically it's a strategy of let's steal from the poor especially women and give to the corporations and the rich c.e.o.'s. it makes you wonder do conservatives think that corporations are actual people. but women particularly poor and minority women

are just second class citizens the truth is they do but this isn't anything new in america since that fateful supreme court case in eight hundred eighty six southern pacific railroad versus santa clara county where the court reporter decided to take it upon himself to say that corporations are people and they should be granted all the same rights as people despite the fact that the supreme court had actually ruled the exact opposite corporations have staked claim to more and more rights that used to reserve just for actual living and breathing people including the first amendment right to free speech the fourth member right to privacy the fourteenth amendment right to equal protection under the law meanwhile women and minorities actual people have seen their rights steadily taken away eight hundred fifty six in the dred scott case the supreme court ruled that people african-americans in this case are property that decision led directly to the civil

war after which the thirteenth fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were passed to strip slavery out of the constitution and here and he equal rights to everybody except women. during that same era in the bradwell versus illinois case the supreme court ruled that women couldn't claim rights under the fourteenth amendment because basically they were the property of their husbands that was partially was reversed in one nine hundred twenty when the nineteenth amendment a women the vote but every year since one nine hundred twenty three a constitutional amendment has been proposed it simply says equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the united states or by any state on account of sex and every year it's been shot down by conservatives and either congress or the states equal rights or an equal rights amendment still has not passed so women still don't have full rights and republicans feel quite calm comfortable with their war on women particularly poor women the corporations they

got out rights. twenty ten in the citizens united case the u.s. supreme court near or image that dred scott ruling by saying that property is people at corporations have constitutional rights like the right to political free speech and frankly a new civil war has started between the rich and the rapidly disappearing middle class today we are seeing the largest gap between the rich and the poor in america nearly a century there are fifty two million people without health insurance forty million people dependent on food stamps survive and one in five american children live in poverty that corporations have never been better thanks to their person they've gamed the system and the financial times noted today they're on course to see bigger profits this year than any time since one nine hundred ninety three as warren buffett said the rich are winning the war i say it's time to turn the tide let's strip personhood from corporations and embrace common sense only people

should be considered people. no more of our personhood for corporations that it is an insane concept it needs to be abandoned that's the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered check out our website at www dot com and over get marcy begins with your it. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to look for asians to rule today .